One person injured in blaze at Gardner apartment complex

One person is believed to have been injured in a fire that severely damaged a fourth-floor apartment in the Wakefield Place Apartments this afternoon.

Firefighters were called at 2:22 p.m. to fight the fire in the large apartment building at 194 Central St., formerly part of the former Heywood-Wakefield factory complex. The fire was on the west side of the south end of the building.

Fire Chief Ronald P. Therrien said fire was showing from the windows of the apartment.

Second and third alarms were struck and firefighters entered the building from an adjacent apartment, bringing hoses through the hallway and into the apartment that was on fire.

“We don't know yet what caused it,” Chief Therrien said.

“There was a report of one person injured, possibly a burn victim. A couple of firefighters were also checked out by EMS (emergency medical services) due to exhaustion.”

Chief Therrien said the building, one of the city's largest apartment buildings, is of concern to the Fire Department because it has no sprinklers.

The company renovating the building about 20 years ago was allowed to remove them because it was believed the way the apartments were built would contain any fire to the apartment it was in.In this case, he said, it did, but only because the fire was on the top floor.

“It was a flawed concept at the time,” he said. “If the fire were on the first, second or third floor, it would have been substantially worse.”

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